I sit here writing this blog after what has been an incredibly crazy day, during which I watched Orlando Pirates unfortunately stumble at the final hurdle on the way to the CAF Champions League title.
Pirates did well in spells, managing to overcome the theatre of noise that surrounded them, but couldn't finish off their chances and succumbed to two second-half goals.
Read: Ahly Win CAF Champions League
I'll admit, I was gutted. The first goal felt like a thump to the stomach, and the second was the sucker punch. Credit to Al Ahly, they've got phenomenally passionate fans and are an extremely organised unit. Their victory was not undeserved.
However, my nightmare started many hours before Pirates' dreams came crumbling down. It all started when we arrived at the stadium…
Bearing in mind that only 25,000 tickets were meant to be sold for this game, I was shocked to see the streets around the Arab Contractors Stadium lined with blood red jerseys at 3pm, three hours before the game got underway.
However, myself and fellow journalists were even more shocked when we found out that, in order to reach our destination, we'd have to wade through the masses, past the army tanks and soldiers, and up into the stadium.
After plenty of pushing and shoving, a few yells of 'We're South African media!', we finally made it through the three entrances, all of which were barricaded, and into the stadium grounds. Finally, mission accomplished. Or not.
We entered the stadium around 3.30pm and already two thirds of the ground was full of supporters. Noisy, raucous supporters. Fans were climbing over the walls, over the turnstiles and even up onto the scoreboard, it was carnage.
We got ourselves seated and thought we could finally crack on with a bit of work and keep you guys, the public, updated with what was going on. However, there was no phone signal and the WiFi was busted.
After some thumb twiddling and some photo taking we were told the WiFi was up and running, and that we could use it at our will. That was until some cretin somewhere let a swarm of Ahly fans into the media area, who consequently forced us all out of 'our' area and back onto the field.
Funny, there was police everywhere, and even some folks from the army, but nobody seemed to be bothered about what was going on around the stadium. It seemed to be a case of, 'Oh, not this again…', and business as usual.
Anyway, back to our predicament. After spending a good 30 minutes standing on the pitch as the stadium filled up with more passionate Ahly fans, we were told that we'd have to move up to the stand, where they'd 'try' and get us some internet access.
So we (the South African media), shifted ourselves up into the stand and in behind the dignitaries just in time for the start of the match and, guess what, we had no internet access.
This went on throughout the course of the game, giving us all but no chance of sending through updates at any point, and consequently putting a bit of a dampener on the whole experience.
So instead of enjoying the game and posting a tweet or a picture or two to you guys, we instead watched in bits, simultaneously trying to get our hands on the rare commodity of internet that seemed to flit in and out. Useless.
Then, when Ahly scored those two goals, sending the crowd into raptures and madness, it was a final kick in the teeth for us. Not only had the day not started well, but it had ended awfully too.
CAF really should be taking more care in helping set up such a major event. This encounter was badly organised, badly orchestrated and badly policed. I know 'this is Africa', but come on, we have to have some standards don't we?
I'll be honest, Cairo hasn't endeared itself to me. While some of the people are extremely helpful, in general it's a chaotic city where the vast majority of the population seem ungovernable and nothing seems to be simple.
I came here with no expectations, and while the game at Arab Contractors was an incredible experience, I won't be rushing back.
Congratulations Ahly, worthy winners. And Pirates, you did the nation proud, there's no shame in losing to that team, in that stadium because of a goal from THAT guy. Aboutrika, if you do retire, it's been real. All the best.
Yours in football,
Joe (In Cairo)
@YesWeCrann
